Apple confirmed the acquisition, but declined to give details. The news was reported by the Wall Street Journal, which quoted a person familiar with the matter as saying that Apple paid around $US20 million ($19.1m) for the company.

"Apple acquires smaller technology companies from time to time, and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans," an Apple spokesman said.

WiFiSlam develops technology that provides indoor tracking and similar services. Big tech companies such as Apple and Google have been racing to provide more and better map applications for users. Google's application, Google Maps, is widely accessed on Google's Android platform and Apple's rival iOS platform.

The acquisition of WiFiSlam follows Apple also purchasing Australian mobile app search engine Chomp in February last year for a reported $US50m.